Tennis serve front foot issues

[alancroft]

Hi iv'e recently been working on my serve trying to get a bit more forward momentum into my serve.

My service action has has improved. What i tend to do now is when i toss the ball, i bring my back foot forward next to my front foot e.g a typical pin point service stance.
What i also do though is once i've brought the back foot forward in line more with the front foot, i then move my front foot an extra step in front.
This really has helped me. Has anyone else got a similar motion?

Iv'e noticed Safin and Youzhny move both their front foot and thier back foot. However iv'e noticed they both move their front foot first and then move the back foot in lnine afterwards. I feel really uncomfortable doing this. However when i move my front foot forward afterwards i feel more comfortable.
I must say i make two quite big steps so i have to stand a bit behind the baseline. Could this perhaps be seen as an illegal walking serve? How many and how big can the steps be, before taking a serve?

Thanks

 

[LeeD]

Moving both feet the same amount, at the same time, for each and every serve would be hard to replicate, and you will double fault, footfault, or must miss serves when the pressure is on, or when there is no pressure. Not a good idea to be moving around when trying a serve, or a throw of any kind.
Even with a platform stance serve, you can jump up and forwards to land initially 20" inside the baseline, your momentum taking you to mid NML if you drive forwards.
Easier to drive forwards more with pinpoint stance.
That is more than adaquate forward momentum, as you're bordering with bad court position unless you continue to net position from deep NML.
I say nay, because the little gain you get is offset by inconsistencies from an overly complicated technique.
Possibly, a good idea to try if you're a solid 4.5 + level player who's been playing tennis for 6+ years, and is looking to improve ONE aspect of the serving game.

 

[oble]

What i also do though is once i've brought the back foot forward in line more with the front foot, i then move my front foot an extra step in front.
This really has helped me. Has anyone else got a similar motion?

And are you sure you're not foot faulting by doing that?

A lot of rec players in my area do that because I guess it's like you said, it helps getting more forward momentum into the serve since a lot of guys can't seem to get the proper leg drive right, but in doing that front foot step they end up foot faulting all day long.

To be honest, if I get serious about calling foot faults, I'd be winning matches without even playing a point on return. but that would make me very unpopular since it's like, 90% of the rec player population that I have come across so far who can't jump/use leg drive that do the front foot step.

 

[Mack-2]

And are you sure you're not foot faulting by doing that?

A lot of rec players in my area do that because I guess it's like you said, it helps getting more forward momentum into the serve since a lot of guys can't seem to get the proper leg drive right, but in doing that front foot step they end up foot faulting all day long.

To be honest, if I get serious about calling foot faults, I'd be winning matches without even playing a point on return. but that would make me very unpopular since it's like, 90% of the rec player population that I have come across so far who can't jump/use leg drive that do the front foot step.

Are there any drills in particular that can help stop kids from doing this? A lot of kids in my area do this as well. Every serve is a foot fault! I used to do this as well and I never even knew it until I took some video of my serve. I got myself to stop doing it just by focusing on keeping the foot in one position. However, kids learn differently and I can't get them to stop the foot from moving by just telling them to focus on keeping it still.

 

[shindemac]

Are there any drills in particular that can help stop kids from doing this? A lot of kids in my area do this as well. Every serve is a foot fault! I used to do this as well and I never even knew it until I took some video of my serve. I got myself to stop doing it just by focusing on keeping the foot in one position. However, kids learn differently and I can't get them to stop the foot from moving by just telling them to focus on keeping it still.

You can't. A few years ago, people were asking all the time how do i stop my leg from kicking out to the right? It seems obvious now (at least for those who have been paying attention), but your leg acts like a dinosaur tail to counterbalance your upper body. If you're kicking your leg off to the right, your torso is tilted to the left. There isn't anything you can do to stop that leg from kicking out. Unless you change what the rest of the body is doing. If you did, you would literally fall over.

 

[oble]

Are there any drills in particular that can help stop kids from doing this? A lot of kids in my area do this as well. Every serve is a foot fault! I used to do this as well and I never even knew it until I took some video of my serve. I got myself to stop doing it just by focusing on keeping the foot in one position. However, kids learn differently and I can't get them to stop the foot from moving by just telling them to focus on keeping it still.

To be honest, I don't know. I'm not a professional coach and I personally serve with platform stance and I don't move my feet once I get into the trophy pose so I can only speculate below. My coach used to warn me about my occasional tendency to foot fault when I tried the pinpoint stance, but I noticed that because I found maintaining my balance with the pinpoint stance a little weird, I ended up having my front foot flat on the ground more often that I'd liked so that could be causing me to shift my front foot a little into the court. The problem went away when I decided to stick to the platform stance.

Having said that, I do notice that during warm ups when I'm just serving slow and not getting my legs involved, I occasionally do move my front foot a little but it seems more like a balance thing. I would think that once the person gets into proper trophy pose with knees bent, weight on the toes and the balls of the feet (heels off the ground) it should automatically stop the front foot from moving anymore since moving the front foot in that position will probably cause the server to completely lose balance.

Maybe you should check to see if the kids you're teaching are getting their knees bent and heels off the ground at the trophy pose?

 

[fuzz nation]

Moving the front foot while loading up to serve introduces an extra variable in addition to your toss location that may not be worth your trouble. I rather like the strong move that Safin would use to set in under his toss, but the pros practice this stuff so much that they can really dial in all of their moving parts pretty well. For mere mortals like ourselves it can be smarter to leave the front foot still. If you want to use a deliberate forward weight transfer as you set your trophy position, it's easy enough to start with your weight on your back foot, then slide that foot forward as you toss and get set to push up to contact.

Your optimum contact point for your serve is only relative to the set position of that front foot. The BIG potential problem with moving your front foot is that it varies the location of that contact point. Assuming your toss is in the exact same spot (rarely the case), if you step too far forward with that front foot, the serve can sail long - contact point moves back too far. Don't step forward far enough and the serve is in the net - contact point is too far in front of you.

If you can get both your toss and your step exactly right just about all the time, that's great. If there's a little wiggle room in there though, your serve will be more prone to breaking down.